


love songs painted on skin

by tigriswolf



Series: comment_fic drabbles [322]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fluff, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Tattoos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-04
Updated: 2016-09-04
Packaged: 2018-08-13 02:09:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7958245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigriswolf/pseuds/tigriswolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Even though they aren't soulmates (because their soulmarks don't match), Louis can't go a day without talking to him and Harry can't go a day without talking to him, and they swiftly become inseparable.</p>
            </blockquote>





	love songs painted on skin

**Author's Note:**

> Title: love songs painted on skin  
> Disclaimer: they belong to themselves  
> Warnings: AU where 1D never happened  
> Pairings: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson  
> Rating: PG  
> Wordcount: 885  
> Point of view: third  
> Prompt: RPF, Louis Tomlinson/Harry Styles, 'Sometimes, your soulmate and the love of your life don’t end up being the same person. And that’s something I had to learn the hard way.’ Au

Soulmarks are a private, personal thing. Only the doctor who helped birth you, your parents, your pediatrician, your GP, and your soulmate are ever supposed to know.

.

Harry's soulmark reads, _Hey, mate, you're blocking the way_. He used to fantasize about what way he could be blocking: an aisle in a grocery store? a sidewalk? a hall? He imagined a hundred different things and he always made sure to take his time wherever he was, just in case his soulmate was there waiting to say it. 

Louis' soulmark reads, _Will the train be on time?_ He used take the train everywhere he could possibly could, and even hang out in stations, just in case his soulmate was there waiting to say it. 

.

When he's 21, Louis hides in a toilet because his just accidentally dumped beer all over a drunk rugby player and he'd rather not have the shit beat out of him. He goes to the farthest stall, slides the flimsy lock, and wishes he hadn't forgotten his mobile tonight because ringing Liam and Niall for help seems to be his only option for survival. 

When he's 19, Harry is in a toilet at a bar and while he's on the way to the basin, he trips on air and tumbles to the floor, where he giggles for a moment because it's just so disgusting. He's glad no one's there to witness it. But then he rolls over to try and get up, and sees that there's someone in the stall who isn't using the loo but is in fact looking at him, and is possibly an elf or something because humans just aren't that pretty. 

.

The first thing Harry says to Louis: "Oops!" 

The first thing Louis says to Harry: "Hi." 

.

After Harry helps Louis sneak out of the party without getting the shit beat out of him by a drunk rugby player, they become fast friends. 

Even though they aren't soulmates (because their soulmarks don't match), Louis can't go a day without talking to him and Harry can't go a day without talking to him, and they swiftly become inseparable. 

They act, in fact, the way soulmates do in romantic comedies and in epic poetry and in legends, and their friends become friends and their families get along, and it's just—

Harry kisses Louis three months after they meet and nothing has ever felt righter to either of them. 

.

When Harry is 25 and Louis is 27, Zayn tattoos over the soulmarks they were born with; Harry's becomes a collection of roses with initials in their petals while Louis' is covered with a dagger down his forearm.

"You won't regret this, will you?" Louis asks as they leave the tattoo parlor. 

"I couldn't regret you," Harry answers. 

They have to tell everyone who knows, but it's not illegal, to cover up soulmarks. Just horrifying, and rare. 

Four months after their accident-of-birth soulmarks are gone, Zayn gives them two new tattoos: the soulmarks they should've been born with. 

.

When Harry is 27 and married in all but name, he's waiting to use the toilet on an airplane and a man says, "Hey, mate, you're blocking the way." 

He replies without thinking, "Oh, sorry," and steps closer to the door. 

The man pauses but Harry just glances over with a raised eyebrow and after another moment, the man continues into the cabin. 

Harry doesn't realize until he's back in his seat, and he wonders for just a moment—but then Louis shifts in his sleep and the ring Harry bought him on their fifth anniversary catches the light, and nothing could be better than what he has. 

.

When Louis is 30 and married in all but name, he's holding Rosie while waiting to catch the train home, listening to her babble about what they did in school, and a man bumps into him while asking, "Will the train be on time?" 

Louis says, "Excuse you," to the bloke and focuses back on his daughter. 

He doesn't notice when the man stares at him incredulously before his gaze goes to Rosie, or when the man stalks away. 

.

"Do you ever think about them?" Louis asks, trailing his fingers along the roses inked into Harry's arm. 

Harry presses a kiss to the dagger and then to _Oops!_ , the only mark that matters. "Occasionally," he murmurs. The guilt is long faded and he hopes that whoever the accident-of-birth soulmarks were for, they found even half the happiness Harry has. 

Downstairs, something shatters and Rosie shouts, "It was Darcy's fault!" 

Lynn shrieks, "It was Rosie! Lying's wrong!" 

"Shall we go see what the monsters have broken now?" Louis says. 

"I suppose we must," Harry agrees. 

.

Soulmarks are a private, personal thing. Harry and Louis tell their children that soulmarks _can_ be wrong, but each person has to make that decision for themselves. 

"Was it hard?" Rosie asks when she's 19 and scared to find whoever says, _This seat's taken_.

"Were you nervous?" Darcy asks when she's 20 and worried about whoever says, _Back off, that piece is mine!_

"Did you ever regret it?" Lynn asks when she's 15 and brings home the boy who said, _Yellow's a stupid color_ , both of them trembling in shock. 

It was hard, and it was nerve-wracking, but neither of them ever regret it.


End file.
